Slideshow

At a glance

•Star: Davidson running back Alex Mickley, who rushed for 121 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries

•Key play: On fourth-and-1 at Darby’s 17-yard line, Mickley carried 4 yards for a first down. The play eventually set up his own 1-yard touchdown run to give the Wildcats a 7-0 lead.

•Key stat: The Wildcats limited Darby to 78 yards and three first downs.

The Hilliard Davidson High School football team completed an undefeated regular season with a 21-0 victory over host Hilliard Darby in an OCC-Central Division game Friday, Oct. 28.

The Wildcats improved to 9-0 overall and won the OCC-Central outright at 7-0.

The Panthers finished 7-3 and 4-3.

“Our No. 1 goal was to win our league, and we’re very proud that we were able to beat a good Hilliard Darby squad to stay undefeated and win our league championship outright,” said Davidson coach Brian White, whose team likely earned the No. 1 seed for the Division I, Region 3 playoffs.

The Wildcats’ defense turned in a dominant performance, holding Darby to 78 yards and three first downs.

“That’s a very good football team and their defense is probably one of the best we’ve seen in recent years,” Darby coach John Santagata said. “Their defense is definitely the best we’ve played against all season.”

The Wildcats opened the game with a 19-play, 62-yard touchdown drive that consumed 10 minutes, 8 seconds and was capped by a 1-yard run by Alex Mickley.

“Obviously, that was a great drive to start to the game with,” White said. “I think that’s one of the longer drives we’ve ever put together in my years here. That helped a lot because Darby has some dangerous weapons like (Caleb Day), and we were able to keep them off the field for a long time.”

Davidson rushed for 235 yards on 60 carries. Mickley had 121 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries.

Mickley, whose jersey was caked with mud after the game, scored on a 1-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

He also scored on a 1-yard run with 40.4 seconds left to cap a 13-play, 72-yard drive.

“We never broke off a big play, but we ran our offense and knocked off small chunks of yards, play after play,” Mickley said. “My touchdowns were all because of what our linemen did up front. I just ran behind them to get in the end zone.”

Chase Longwell was 5-for-7 passing for 47 yards and rushed for 16 yards on nine carries to lead Darby’s offense.